Development of Parties and Party Systems in ... - lah@sam.sdu.dk

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the falling popular support for privatization of the state enterprises 80 . Many voters shared theopinion that “Poland does not have the type of market economy that we expected” (in 1989), andmainly for that reason many decided to vote “post-communist”. Opposite, the popular support forprivatisation and market economy has been greatest under “post-communist” led governments.Up to the 1997 election some observers talked about three currents inside SLD:• a social-liberal supported by Aleksander Kwasniewski• a centrist supported Josef Oleksy• finally a more dogmatic line supported by the trade union OPZZ and minister for labour, LeszekMiller 81 .The social-liberal group abandoned Marxist Leninist thinking; instead aiming to introduce marketeconomy and political capitalism on favourable conditions for “nomenklatura entrepreneurs”. The“social-liberal versus orthodox” divide, however, was never razor-sharp and changing over time.After the take over of the post as the chairman of the SLD Leszek Miller followed a pragmatic line,appealing to the new middle class and supporting market economy and Polish membership ofNATO and the EU. The left profile was mostly expressed in the attitudes to the church and thecommunist past. The majority of those who voted SLD have been critical to church leaders’demands about the restrictive abortion rules, the inequality between man and woman and theobligatory religious instruction in schools and other forms of church interference in political life.The social composition of SLD’s voters has changed over time. At the 1991 election SLD obtained13-14 pct. of the votes among the best educated, only surpassed by Democratic Union (UD), thelater Freedom Union (UD). The support among the students was lower (5.7 pct.) and SLD was alsoshort of votes among workers and women. At the 1993 election SLD gained 20 pct. of the welleducatedvoted SLD, 13 pct. among the lower educated and 20 pct. among the lowest educated.More interesting, at the 1997 election 23 pct. among the private entrepreneurs voted SLD, makingSLD the strongest party inside that social group. The liberal Democratic Union (UD) had to contentitself with 18 pct.That trend was confirmed at the 1997 election. Thus, measured by social support SLD cannot beconsidered as class party (Knuzewski, 1998:152), but SLD had many loyal voters, so the alternativefor many dissatisfied voters has been not to vote at all, what could be observed at the 2002 regionaland local elections. In step with the stronger voter support in the late 1990’s the social support basebecame broader. Before the 2001 election SLD had the greatest support in all bigger social groupsand succeeded to maintain a profile as a professionally led and well institutionalized catch-all typepolitical party.In spite of different factions SLD behaved as a disciplined alliance, in part because of the pressurefrom outside, e.g. the demands from the Right for increased de-communisation (“dekomunizacja”).The fact that SLD had a well-organized political core in the shape of the party SdRP, was also an80 Lena Kolarska-Bobinska, ”Kapitalizm nie taki, jaki mial byc”, Gazeta Wyborcza 6.-7.11., 1999, ”Swiateczna”:2.81 Rzeczpospolita 20.9., 1993:6.90
important. Thus, SLD could not have survived the defection of the faction the Republic of PolandsSocial Democratic Party (SdRP). Opposite, only a few noticed that the above mentioned“hardliner’s” Association of Polish Communists Proletariat (“Zwiazek Kommunistow PolskichProletariat”) left the SLD in 1998.Working as an opposition party after the 1997 election SLD primarily focused on single policyissues, furthermore SLD gained support because of the “wars in the top” inside AWS. Manywelcomed Leszek Miller’s appeal to stop what he called the Polish peoples’ too many “war amongthemselves”. According to Leszek Miller the electorate would reward those politicians and partiesthat at aim at concrete policy results and to obtain more political stability such as was the case underthe negotiations in the mid 1990’s between SLD and most other parties about the new Polishconstitution 82 .Edmund Wnuk Lipinski rightly characterized SLDs policy-line in opposition as meritocratic(“opposition merytoryczna”) 83 . The meritocratic policy differs from the traditional oppositionpolicy, in which case the goal is not so much to change the government proposals, but to obtainmore votes by persistently critisizing proposals from the part of the government. The meritocraticpolicy line was conducted in the case of the administrative reform, the health reform and thepension and education reforms; those reforms were prepared and later introduced by the AWS-UWgovernment.The first leader of the Labour Union (UP) Rychard Bugaj regarded SLD as a heterogeneouselectorate and a broad and vague political programme, which gives to the party more freedom ofmanoeuvre and make it possible for the party to change the attitude in many cases. No bigdifferences could be observed between the right wing parties and SLD as far as the economicprogrammes were concerned. Instead, the political battles moved to other arenas. Subjects such asfreedom of man and fight against nationalism seem to replace economic slogans as globalisationand adaption to the EU had curtailed freedom of maneuvres in the economic policy. In other words,also the Polish Left has been subject to “path-dependency”, which means that no realisticalternatives can be found to market economy, the membership of the EU and the ongoingglobalisation.2. 14. The foundation of the party SLDThe plans about converting SLD from a party federation to a unified “standard” party were not new,but the process was speeded up because of the adoption of the new 1996 constitution that stated thatonly parties and election committees could take part in elections, and candidates to the electionscould only be nominated by the political parties. Therefore, the “old” SLD, at least theoretically,might not take part in the 2001 election. So from autumn 1998 the party leader Leszek Miller talkedabout dissolving the old SLD party alliance and instead creating a standard political party in thenormal sense.The transformation of SLD took place without so much trouble as in case of AWS. 149 out of 164SLD-members of the Sejm and 25 out of 28 senators joined the new party. Trade union membersnow had to join SLD on an individual basis. Plans were circulating about electing the new partyleadership by a party referenda, but in the end that plan had to be abandoned. An organizational82 Interview with Miller in Rzeczpospolita 19 April, 1999, ”Lewica powinna miec jedna liste”.83 Rzeczpospolita, 2 April.91
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“This provisional situation chara
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marketisation and privatisationshor
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purposes, are channels for “expre
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the significance of strategic choic
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presidentialism gave rise to “flo
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antipolitics and reinforcement of a
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In the late 1990’s elections most
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determined primarily by “politica
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politics and antipolitics, all sign
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which attitudes to state regulation
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Anti-communism has been defined in
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elections and the Slovak communists
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Cartel agreementsbetter representat
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Basically the absence of clear cons
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After 1989 different types of polit
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complex project for transition unde
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window of opportunity in spite of s
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analyses of party institutionalizat
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